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Ted Allbeury's ''The Other Side of Silence'' was published last October and thus it is highly unlikely that Richard Hoyt, when writing TROTSKY'S RUN (Morrow, $12.50), would have known about it. But both authors use Kim Philby, the British traitor who was a top Russian spy and found refuge in the Soviet Union, as an integral part of their books. ''Trotsky's Run,'' like ''The Other Side of Silence,'' makes Philby seek asylum in the West. It also attempts to posit some kind of intellectual and emotional rationale for his actions.

Mr. Hoyt has previously written a pair of books featuring a private investigator named John Denson. (There is a third book, ''The Manna Enzyme,'' that this column missed.) The Denson books were sophisticated, well-written and excellent examples of the genre. But ''Trotsky's Run'' is a stunner -superbly written, brilliantly plotted, a bit scary but believable despite its far-out premise. Mr. Hoyt tells the story with a good deal of irony and cynicism. He has a realistic view of the fencing that goes on between American and Soviet intelligence agents. He also has created, in the figure of James Burlane, an American intelligence agent who knows how to get things done. ''Trotsky's Run'' is a potent package.

The plot is a bit complicated, though always logically handled. Philby, in return for asylum, is ready to prove that the American President-to-be is owned by the K.G.B. Of course the C.I.A. is aghast. Is Philby working on his own? Is this some deep K.G.B. plot? There is no choice but to get him out of Russia. So Burlane and an agency desk man who has never been out in the field are sent to penetrate the Russian defenses and return with Philby. But, you may ask, why is this book named ''Trotsky's Run?'' In addition to Philby's story, there is a good deal about Leon Trotsky, for reasons that eventually become apparent. Put this book at the top of your list.

Two private investigator books, part of a running series, are EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE by Lawrence Block (Arbor House, $13.50) and THE MIDNIGHT MAN by Lawrence Estleman (Houghton Mifflin, $12.95).

Mr. Block introduced Matthew Scudder last year. Scudder is a New York private eye, sort of. That is, he has no license. In this latest adventure he is approached by a prostitute who wants to get out of the life and who asks him to deal with her pimp. A day or two later she is murdered. The pimp says he did not do it and hires Scudder to find out who did.

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All that is good, if orthodox, stuff. But what seems to interest Mr. Block is Scudder's battle against alcoholism. Poor Scudder. He is the most miserable, most alienated person you ever saw: ''I want to sit in a dark corner and turn the world off. I want a drink, damn it.'' Or, ''My life was an ice floe that had broken up at sea, with the different chunks floating off in different directions. Nothing was ever going to come together, in this case or out of it. Everything was senseless, pointless, and hopeless.''

There is an awful lot of self-pity here and the book ends up seeming somewhat self-indulgent. Some cuts easily could have been made. Yet Mr. Block writes very well and has a knack for characterization. The pimp, for example, is a suave cat who is well educated, quotes Nietzsche and Ibsen and is a connoisseur of African art. The girls in his stable are an intelligent mix and they know exactly what they are doing. So, the stereotypical aspects of Scudder aside, this is on the whole an interesting and even superior book.

Amos Walker, who made his debut in Mr. Estleman's ''Motor City Blue'' (1980), is a private detective who works out of Detroit. In the latest adventure in which he appears, ''The Midnight Man,'' Walker is pitted against three killers from Detroit's underworld. When a cop Walker knows gets shot and becomes a vegetable, Walker vows to find the assassin. A personal element is involved: Walker and the cop had been working on the same case.

A bounty hunter enters the case, and what a character he turns out to be. Walker gets beaten up an awful lot. At the end there is something of a surprise and Walker, that man of action, takes care of it the best way he can - with his gun. All this is tough, side-ofthe-mouth stuff, well written, positively guaranteed to keep you awake.